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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26818294">iv. buried alive</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/aro_aizawa/pseuds/aro_aizawa'>aro_aizawa</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Prompt: Buried Alive, Whump, Whumptober 2020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:53:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,375</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26818294</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/aro_aizawa/pseuds/aro_aizawa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p></p><blockquote>
  <p>4. <strike><span>caged</span></strike><span> | </span><b>buried alive</b><span> | </span><strike><span>collapsed building</span></strike></p>
</blockquote><p>
  <span>Some akumas are just plain terrifying. Sometimes they just get lucky. Sometimes it's a close call. What do our heroes do when these three all occur at the same time?</span>
</p><p>
  <a href="https://anonymouseling.tumblr.com/post/628087789992427520/im-gonna-be-doing-whumptober-gotta-flex-my">
    <span>[prompt list]</span>
  </a>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944850</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>46</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>iv. buried alive</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>always been so so so weak for this prompt. it's one of my favourite things explored because the morbid side of me that fucking <em>loves</em> learning out dark stuff thrives off it. to this day, i rewatch/reread all shows and fics that have them in it. it's just....a wonderful prompt. so i did a lot of research for this and freaked myself the hell out because wow there's a number of real life occurances of being buried alive that is so terrifying (and on that binge i got distracted and did you know there was an ancient practice among some japanese monks to mummify themselves while still alive?) i wanted to stretch this out to meet my personal minimum of 2k words per installment but i literally couldn't figure out a way to drag it out while keeping it interesting so..... here ya go!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“If everyone is buried, then there’ll be no one around to defile burial sites!” The undertaker-themed akuma roared as they shot forwards, reaching out and taking advantage of Ladybug’s stuck yoyo. They placed both hands on her shoulders and </span>
  <em>
    <span>shoved.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She expected her head to crack against the floor. Akumas were usually as strong as she and Chat were, so it would be no surprise if she nearly got a concussion. It wasn’t the first time she would have had to fight after having her head knocked against something. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead, she felt herself shoot through the ground, dirt flying past her face and darkness swallowing her whole. After a short while, she stopped dead flinching when she felt dirt fall onto her. Thinking fast, she sat up and shoved her face between her legs, her hands coming up to cover her head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a few moments, the dirt settled and the weight she felt pressing down on her was intense. She couldn’t hear any sounds of fighting, curled up as she was it was rather claustrophobic. She tried to stretch, but the dirt just wouldn’t move. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then it hit her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was...she was buried alive. </span>
</p><p><em><span>Okay Marinette, </span></em><b><em>don’t</em></b> <em><span>panic. Chat still hasn’t used his powers and he’s going to stop at nothing to get you out.</span></em><span> She tried to reassure herself to calm the impending fear. She herself wasn’t on a timer either, she hadn’t had a chance to try her lucky charm nor would she be able to with how limited her movement was. Though...she felt the loop of her yoyo on her finger, it would likely still be stuck. </span></p><p>
  <span>At least it served as a marker for where she was buried. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had no idea how long she’d been stuck down there, it didn’t feel like long but it was hard to really determine time when she could hear nothing but her own hastily beating heart. Would she only have as long as the air she managed to capture with her before she suffocated? She didn’t know how to calculate how long she had. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But...she did know one thing that she hoped that would get back to him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>. . . — — — . . .</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She tugged on the yoyo string in time, just </span>
  <em>
    <span>praying </span>
  </em>
  <span>that it would come across in her tugs. She repeated the code on loop, because knowing how much of a dork and a nerd Chat was, it was unlikely that he didn’t know what it meant. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had one more thing she could use but with no way to determine what was going on above ground she would have to use it only as a last resort. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The fight hadn’t been all that bad up until she got caught. They’d only arrived on the scene a few minutes earlier and didn’t hesitate to launch into fighting the surprisingly agile akuma. He’d twisted out of the way of her yoyo throw which was what got it stuck in the first place. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As far as she knew, the only people that the akuma had buried were inside their cars, giving them a decent amount of air for them to purify the akuma and release them. She’d grimly laugh about the fact that she was the only one unlucky enough to only have a small amount of air, but it was all she could do to keep her breathing even and shallow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>God, she hoped that Chat hadn’t got caught too. She wasn’t sure </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span> she’d do if that happened. It...well it would mean the end of them both, all Hawkmoth would have to do was unbury their dead bodies and pry the miraculous from them. She wondered if he’d care he killed two fourteen year olds. Would that matter to him? Or would it just be another thing to wave off as long as he got the Miraculous? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh man she was only fourteen years old and she was to die being buried alive like some victorian era girl who’d fallen into a coma and buried mistakenly. Only she had a lot less air. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was getting lightheaded and Marinette had no idea if it was because of her lack of oxygen or if her panic was getting the best of her. Either way, she knew she didn’t have long. In a regular coffin a person would have less than three hours before they suffocated, she had maybe a fifth of that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After she passed out, she won’t have long. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pulling together all her strength, she hoped that this would work and called her Lucky Charm. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It didn’t appear where she was, so there was no way that she herself could use it. But...if she was lucky, then Chat would be able to see that she’d used it and grab it himself. It didn’t matter which one of them used it, sure she’d be able to assess the situation and figure out the best way to use it. But that was just because she was so used to it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had always known she was creative and rather good at puzzle solving, she’d grown up playing dozens of puzzle games. But she had faith that if he was given the chance, Chat would just as easily be able to figure out how best to use the charm. She believed in him. Their partnership was equal no matter how differently he or the rest of Paris thought. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette took the lead most of the time because Chat allowed her to, he was more confident in following her, rather than taking the lead. It was a partnership, and she relied on him just as much as he relied on her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her breathing was shallow now, each gasp of breath was drawing in less air, even if her thoughts had somewhat calmed as she thought of her partner. She heard the beep of her earrings — oh, that was handy. A way to keep track of time, and a signal that her charm had successfully been pulled off. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another beep went by and Marinette tried to think of a way she could communicate to Chat that it wasn’t his fault if he didn’t make it in time. She had faith that he would, but all the same...it would be nice to have a backup. But even if she did have a pencil and paper on her person it was too dark to see what she was writing nor could she even move. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d heard horror stories, of people being buried alive found with expressions of terror on their faces with bloodied fingers and ripped coffin lining. The least she could do in that case, was to be as peaceful as she could. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then, the weight pressing down on her faded. She felt her yoyo start to retract as the dirt faded away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He did it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“LADYBUG!” She heard him call, and the rapidly approaching footsteps as she uncurled and took in a large grateful breath of air. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She felt Chat rush into her and wrap his arms tightly around her, burying his face into her neck. “I’m glad you’re okay.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I knew you’d save me.” Ladybug smiled, slowly stretching to return the hug, though she longed to bury her head into his neck and breath in his scent, she refrained in favor of taking in as much air as she could. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was </span>
  <em>
    <span>so</span>
  </em>
  <span> scared.” Chat sobbed. “I— I didn’t know if I was too late, or if you’d suffocated long before...I was terrified I’d have to find you…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry, kitty. You got me just in time.” Her hand came up to ruffle the hair near the nape of his neck. “C’mon, I need to use the charm. Get those other people unburied.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She could tell that he was reluctant to let go of her, she couldn’t blame him, she felt the same way. But they had a duty, and she still didn’t want to test if she could technically bring people back from the dead with her Miraculous. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right.” He said, pulling back, standing up and holding a hand out for her. “But I do want to at least hold your hand while you do it.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She rolled her eyes but smiled. Honestly, she wouldn’t have it any other way. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>and as i always remind at the bottom of each whumptober fic i am taking requests! (<a href="https://anonymouseling.tumblr.com/ask">ONLY VIA MY ASK FUNCTION ON TUMBLR THO</a>) the earlier in the month for the request the better because i am trying to keep a lil bit ahead for this challenge although i haven't quite managed it bc i wrote this one today when it should have been done yesterday whoops. oh well, here's the <a href="https://anonymouseling.tumblr.com/post/628087789992427520/im-gonna-be-doing-whumptober-gotta-flex-my">prompt list</a> of the fics that i'm planning/haven't gotten requests for. and please, remember to leave a comment!! every single comment helps me continue w this challenge, even if it's smth rlly small like a lil &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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